Fate of Revolutionary Guard’s investments in Syria

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The decision of the US administration to add the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the list of foreign terrorist organizations opened the door to questions about the fate of Iranian investments in the Middle East region in general and in Syria in particular.

According to researchers in Iran, the Revolutionary Guards is the largest economic arm in the region through the Khatam Al-Anbiya Foundation, which has more than 853 institutions operating in energy, telecommunications and reconstructionetc…

So millions of people are working in guard or guard-linked institutions will shift overnight into an army of terrorists from the American point of view.

Younis Karim, expert and economic adviser, told EQTSAD that “Khatam Al Anbiya” deals with 5000 contractors and traders, and includes about 650 thousand employees within Iran only. Therefore if we consider all these institutions as terrorists, this will lead to economic paralysis inside Iran and will stop many Iranian development programs because all those programs are controlled by Revolutionary Guards.

Syria is an important area for the Iranian companies and investments sponsored by the Revolutionary Guards.

As a result, the Assad regime will be affected by the American move, especially in terms of economic situation, which may decreased as the Iranian funds are huge in Syria so it will try to keep away from entering international matters between the Russians and the regime and Iran and America, which will be a shock to the Syrian economy.

According to Karim, the Revolutionary Guards is not only a military force for Iran, it is also an economic power, and it has investments not only within Iran but also in all the Gulf states and informally through businessmen operating in Kuwait, the UAE and Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq, North Africa, Syria, Egypt, and the Maghreb.

This will lead to a lot of bank restraint for these businessmen and their pursuit of security as terrorist organizations.

In his opinion, Karim said that this will stop many Iranian projects sponsored by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Syria, such as power plants and pipeline oil and energy.

The oil and energy pipeline project from Iraq to Zabadani toLebanon then the Syrian coast is one of the most important projects of the Revolutionary Guard in Syria, which was fundedin 2013 of about 10 billion $.

Al-Karim pointed out that one of the most important investments of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is also the group of properties and hotels in Damascus and its countryside.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard also invests in agriculture,through land in Deir ezZor and in the countryside of Damascus and in electric power projects.

Iran has also invest in the development of some gas fields in the Qara in Syria, expanded the Tishreen field in the Harran Al-Awamid area in rural Damascus and the reinvestment of the power plant in rural Latakia.

It has several investments in the car assembly sector and some basic foodstuffs, in the cement factory in Adra industrial area.

The Mojahedin Khalq Organization, one of the strongest opponents of the Iranian mullahs' regime, has uncovered a number of economic agreements and deals, most notably the agreement signed in 2017 between the Prime Minister of the regime and Iran's first vice president, to force the government of the regime to return the "debt" of the Iranian regime within 25 years, extendable to 40 years, in return for payment of all expenses paid by Iran in Syria, and agreed to be implemented through six major contracts .

The Supreme Council of Iran National Security estimated the amount Syria would pay to Iran at the maximum of $ 20 billion, which includes only the oil and credit sales that the Iranian regime gave Syria during the regime of Bashar al-Assad during the Syrian war.

The amount of oil provided by the Iranian regime to the government of the Assad regime during this period is about at least 8 billion dollars, does not include the above amount of military aid and equipment provided by the Iranian regime to the Assad regime, a number several times more than the above figure, according to Iranian opposition sources .

In this regard, the economic expert "Karim" said that "even the value of Iranian oil supplied to the Assad regime is estimated of 8 billion dollars, but the Syrian market during the period of funding remained suffering from an oil crisis, which means that these fuels were sold through intermediaries to secure liquidity of the regime ".

Sources from Moujahidi Al Khalq organization said that the companies of Khatam Al-Anbiya, Nirugaster, Iran for Foreign Investment, and Brennan are among the most important Iranian companies that have projects and agreements in Syria.

The source pointed out that Khatam Al-Anbiya is the main contractor for Iranian projects in Syria, under the leadership of Brigadier General of the Revolutionary Guard "AbadullahAbdullahi".

The Iranian companies signed several contracts with the regime’s government including: the signing of a contract with the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture to invest 5000 hectares of agricultural in the Syrian interior and under the supervision of the Iranian Ministry of Agriculture.

In 2017, was signed the Zahid farm in Tartous, which includes agricultural machinery and equipment and fire protection system in the forests, as well as the establishment of a feed plant for livestock and freezing rooms, a slaughterhouse, a factory and the Zahid farm for raising cattle in Tartous, and other contract was signed for the construction of an immunization plant under the supervision of the Razi Institute in Iran.

The Iranian companies also aimed to sign contracts with the Assad regime to invest in the phosphate mines in the countryside of Palmyra in the east of Homs.

The companies of Khatam al-Anbiya and Qaim took responsibility for these projects under the auspices of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. The main plan was to export the phosphate produced in the future by Port of Tartous.

In this context, Karim explained that the company invested in phosphate mines and salt after being taken away from the Turkish companies that were granted to them from the Assad regime before the Syrian revolution as a result of a change in the political situation and granting the Assad regime those investments to Iran.

So these investments was re-extracted from Iran and given toRussia to take investments in other regions for the purpose of change in the military map.

According to Karim, it indicates that the regime can take away the ownership of many of the investments granted to Iran as a result of the sanctions imposed on them and in order to converge from the United Nations.